The Lowden Millennium Twins have been shown at trade fairs, and Lowden report that after beeing previewed at NAMM in the USA in March, 21 sets were ordered from an intended run of 25 sets. They have therefore increased the edition to 50 pairs. The guitars can be ordered as any combination of two sizes - an O with an S, an O with an F, and F with an S - and are intended as performing instruments, with a slightly thicker top than usual.
However, the tops are described as a very tightly grained redwood cedar (presumably the tree we know as Sequoia or Wellingtonia) and this is known to be a soft and highly responsive wood. Apparently, George Lowden is so impressed with the quality of these master-grade tops that Lowden will now consider using redwood as a mainstream topwood.
All the woods for the edition are from naturally fallen trees, and the unique 'Twins' aspect is part of the way the woods are selected. The body and top woods in every twinned pair are from the same billets or claro walnut and redwood respectively, from adjacent cuts so that the grain and figuring match as perfectly as possible. In the usual Lowden manner, the design is understated and classical - the ebony fingerboard in bound with pear-wood, the bodies are maple bound, claro walnut is used for the heel cover and to face the headstock. The neck is the usual five-piece Lowden construction. A small MM logo, for 2000, is set on the heel cover. The bridges are rosewood, and there is an abalone inlay rosette, but no fretboard top markers.
First reports indicate a price of $9,000 or around £5,500 per pair, which seems entirely reasonable. My own choice, if I was ordering a pair of instruments like this, would be for the small body guitar to be a nylon strung S body slotted headstock version with wide neck, and the larger to be an O body steel string with standard neck. Having two steel string guitars as Twins seems a little limiting, though I can imagine a male/female duo ordering this pair exactly as shown above - it would make a stunning stage combination.
Delivery of the Millennium Twins is, as usual, not a matter of shipping two weeks after the announcement. It will be the end of the year before guitars are delivered, and given the increased edition run, we must imagine that a part of the edition will be delivered in 2001.
By that time, we shall of course be in the Third Millennium no matter what your viewpoint is on calendar matters, and it will be time for Lowden to create the Third Millennium Triplets - F, O and S matched guitars...
DK (photo by courtesy of Steve McIlwraith, Lowden)